The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government has set the stage in New Delhi to scale up its fight against the Centre on the issue of procurement of paddy (parboiled rice) produced this rabi (yasangi) season to the national-level as a last ditch effort to make the Food Corporation of India (FCI) start procurement of paddy.
Time is running out fast for the State government to find a way out of the crisis situation as the produce has started arriving into markets and the traders are resorting to exploitation of farmers in the absence of support price operations by the government by paying up to ₹700 less per quintal against the MSP of ₹1,960 for Grade-A varieties and ₹1,940 for common varieties.
A team of party leaders camping the national capital for the last five days have put all arrangements in place including dais, stay, food and parking facilities in Telangana Bhavan and its surrounding areas. The party has also arranged vehicles for transporting the leaders not only from the airport/railway station but also from their stay facilities to the protest site on the Telangana Bhavan premises.
“It is unprecedented in a parliamentary democracy that an entire elected State government, Chief Minister and all of his Cabinet colleagues, along with other elected representative from mandal parishad president level is holding a protest in the national capital on a farmer’s issue,” Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy said.
Recollecting that the A.B. Vajpayee government had relaxed norms to procure discoloured paddy in Punjab during 2001-02 at MSP following the farmers’ and State Government request after the FCI and Ministry of Food and Public Distribution refused to procure such paddy. He appealed to the Centre again to set aside the attitude of vengeance and procure rabi paddy without any restrictions.
As part of publicising the protest and take it to the notice of not only the decision makers but the general public too, the TRS machinery has arranged flex-printing posters and hoardings at several traffic junctions with its demands including for “one nation, one procurement policy” written both in Hindi and English.
“The objective of our protest in the national capital is to highlight the problem of farmers as the Centre is refusing to procure paddy citing trivial reasons even as the produce is reaching markets and good demand for food, including parboiled rice, in the international markets,” Vice-Chairman of the Telangana State Planning Board B. Vinod Kumar said. The protest would also aim to take the issue to the notice of other parties and organisations fighting for farmers’ cause.
Stating that the Centre’s attitude on paddy procurement could also lead to threatening the country’s food security, TRS MLC K. Kavitha said their party’s demand was for a national procurement policy without discrimination against any State.
